Chief Commercial Officer Peter Silverstone was one of the first casualties of the David Hopkinson 100-day review after the Canadian came in as Newcastle United’s new CEO.
Silverstone was the man who brought Adidas back to St James’ Park, using his existing relationship with the German sportswear giant to put together a lucrative deal for Newcastle.
However, after that, he seemed to do very little. He brought in some new partnerships, such as Red Bull, but the fact that we were still without a stadium sponsor or a partner for our training ground or training kit by the time he left his post in January suggests that he’d been dragging his feet a bit too much.
Hopkinson laid down the law when he came in as CEO and stated that anyone not pulling their weight would be shipped out, and while Silverstone’s exit was framed as him being offered a new role with Juventus, the timing and the evidence pointed towards him being pushed rather than leaving of his own accord.
David Hopkinson is going to take charge of commercial deals
Since his exit, Newcastle haven’t moved to fill his position, and now Chris Waugh has said in his latest Q&A for The Athletic that the club will not be hiring a new CCO, instead changing the structure.
“Silverstone’s position of chief commercial officer (CCO) is not being filled. Instead, interviews have taken place for a chief revenue officer (CRO) — alongside a chief strategy officer and a chief marketing officer, with former Virgin Media head of talent Graeme Johnson already appointed as the chief people officer — which is a far narrower brief.”
David Hopkinson is taking a more hands-on approach to commercial negotiations and was key in bringing in the recently announced training ground partnership with KNOX Hydration.
We need stability in the boardroom
It sounds as though Hopkinson is trying to streamline the board’s responsibilities so that nobody has too broad a scope, and that can only be a good thing going forward.
However, they need to get it all sorted out sooner rather than later. One of the biggest problems since the takeover has been the lack of consistency at the top. The board has changed so many times in four years that Eddie Howe’s head must be spinning, wondering who he’s got to speak to.
This summer will be the first time we’ve got a sporting director and CEO in place who haven’t just arrived a fortnight before or don’t have one foot out of the door. They need to make it count.